Obama, pope share common ground

On his recent visit to the Vatican, President Obama and Pope Benedict XVI shared views on world economics.

On July 10, Pope Benedict XVI and President Obama held their first official state visit at the Vatican in Rome. Although they have divergent views on abortion and stem cell research, we learned that Pope Benedict and President Obama are in the "same church" and "same pew" when it comes to economics.

Both agree on what caused the biggest world economic crisis since the Great Depression and what needs to be done to get the United States and the global economy back on track.

This common ground on economics between the pope and the president was brought to light in Benedict's third Papal Encyclical and the first on economic justice, titled "Charity in Truth."

Pope Benedict pulls no punches when it comes to economics and presents a uniquely Catholic faith-based approach to economic policy. In his encyclical, which is the most authoritative document a pope can issue, Benedict draws on the strong social justice traditions of the church and its centuries-long commitment to working people and the poor and presents a "people-centered" approach to economic policy that's based on morals and ethics.

Like President Obama, the pontiff accurately laid the blame for the global economic meltdown on the unfettered and deregulated free market theory of economics known as Reaganomics that has dictated U.S. economic policy for 25 years. Pope Benedict said it best when he accused the unbridled growth of recent years on causing unprecedented economic problems, mass migration flows, environmental degradation and a complete loss of trust in the world market.

Sounding like President Obama, Pope Benedict demanded that industrialized nations reduce their energy consumption to better care for the environment and to provide better energy access for the poor. Benedict went on to denounce the drive to outsource work to the cheapest bidder, which endangers the rights of workers.

The pope seemingly gave full support to federal union card check legislation when he demanded that workers be allowed to organize unions to protect their rights and guarantee steady decent employment.

Concurring with Obama, the pope also took on Wall Street and its high-risk financing and unbridled greed that directly caused the global financial meltdown.

He said, "Financiers must rediscover the genuinely ethical foundations of their activities, so as not to abuse the sophisticated instruments which can serve to betray the interest of savers."

Indeed, Benedict practices what he preaches: The one-time scandal-ridden Vatican Bank is now a paragon, a virtue in global banking. According to banking experts, Vatican Bank was not caught up in the global meltdown because it did not invest in credit derivatives and other irresponsible and high-risk Wall Street instruments.

The pope and the president also have come to the same conclusion on how the country and the world can get out of this economic mess. They advocate the need for "more not less governmental intervention" in the economy. The pope, like the president, is directly at odds with so-called "free market" disciples and acolytes who have believed for 25 years that the economy should be free of governmental regulation.

The pope puts this all to rest: "The conviction that the economy must be autonomous, that it must be shielded from 'influences' of moral character, has led man to abuse the economic process in a thoroughly destructive way."

On a personal note, as someone who studied economics at Catholic universities, I was thrilled to see the pope speak out in a clear voice on economics and public policy that's based on the church's long-standing faith-based social justice teachings and ultimately the Gospel itself.

For far too long, it seemed to me that the church's social justice tradition had been shoved aside.

Pope Benedict has put that mission front and center. It is now up to the bishops and priests to preach the pope's encyclical "Charity in Truth" from the pulpit starting today. Â